The Roblog

In 2020, I worked on this book with Barrett Austin. Which is to say: Barrett had an idea for a book, an idea he had been pondering for years. The thesis, or really the hypothesis, was that in this group of southern, residential architects, there were commonalities that would be interesting to explore in depth. He chose seven for the book, six of whom studied architecture at Auburn (Jeremy Corkern did so at Mississippi State), most of whom worked in Montgomery at one point or another, and all of whom grew up in rural places where, if there was an architect at all, there was a only town architect. From those simple beginnings grew beautiful architecture that defines southern residential architecture today.

One of those architects was Jeremy Corkern, and this is a house that he designed in Baton Rouge.

One of the great pleasures of photographing architecture is spending a couple of days with a designer in a place that he or she designed. There’s time for curious questions, time to watch the light dance around each room, time to observe the person standing beside me whose brain conceived those rooms. I think it’s rare for architects to spend time in places they designed after the keys are handed over to the owners.

Jeremy was there, of course, as was John Anderson, the interior designer, and Barrett. And for two days, the four of us worked side-by-side to make the pictures you see here. I’ll always be grateful to Barrett for trusting me with such a special project, and to the architects like Jeremy who gave the book its characters. The full gallery is here.